Critical Reasoning

The Metropolitan Cooking Academy surveyed prospective students and found that students wanted a curriculum that focussed on today's healthy dining trends. In order to reverse the trend of declining interest in the school's programs, administrators propose a series of new courses focussed on cooking exotic species of fish, alternative grains such as quinoa, and organically produced vegetables.

Which of the following, if true, supplies the best reason to suspect that the proposed new courses will increase interest in the Metropolitan cooking Academy?

A) Cooking fish,grains, and vegetables relies on the same culinary fundamentals as does the preparation of other ingredients.

B) In the food and beverage industry, many employers no longer have time to train apprentices and therefore demand basic culinary skills from their new hires.

C) Local producers in the area near the Metropolitan Cooking Academy are excellent sources of exotic fish and organic vegetables.

D) Many other cooking schools have found a decline in the level of interest in their programs.

E) Many advocates of healthy dining stress the importance of including fish, grains, and organically produced vegetables in one's diet.

[spoiler]OA: If I am correct than question asks the best reason to suspect i.e we need to find an answer choice which doubts that the proposed new courses will increase interest in Metropolitan cooking academy???? Then, please tell which is the best option and why????[/spoiler]

My 2 cents ... IMO A

Premise : MCA survey says that students are interested in healthy dining curriculum

Conclusion : Admin decides to include courses for cooking fish,grains and veggies(FGV).

Assumption : Students will be interested in learning cooking FGV

(a) says the same - that cooking FGV is not different from cooking other ingredients, so they will be disinterested to learn something that they either already know or that is counted as basic culinary skill .

I would pick A

Yes you are right, this is a weaken the argument question.

We can eliminate B,C,D as they are irrelevant to the argument. And E is the opposite of what we are looking for. In other words, it would strengthen not weaken the argument

Hi SL750,

I got the reverse of what you made.. I took E as answer and A as opposite.

IMO E
--They took Fish,grain to bring back interst in their circulum but actually they are suiting what students request..so we doubt the act of introducing fish, grain

IMO:A

OA is E, Hi HSPA if I am correct than reason for E being correct is that Academy people introduced fish, grains etc on their own as students never mentioned fish, grains etc for healthy dining trends, so it can be true that students don't like fish, grains etc and therefore, E brings a suspicion.....please correct me if I am wrong

aspirant2011 wrote:The Metropolitan Cooking Academy surveyed prospective students and found that students wanted a curriculum that focussed on today's healthy dining trends. In order to reverse the trend of declining interest in the school's programs, administrators propose a series of new courses focussed on cooking exotic species of fish, alternative grains such as quinoa, and organically produced vegetables.

Which of the following, if true, supplies the best reason to suspect that the proposed new courses will increase interest in the Metropolitan cooking Academy?

A) Cooking fish,grains, and vegetables relies on the same culinary fundamentals as does the preparation of other ingredients.

B) In the food and beverage industry, many employers no longer have time to train apprentices and therefore demand basic culinary skills from their new hires.

C) Local producers in the area near the Metropolitan Cooking Academy are excellent sources of exotic fish and organic vegetables.

D) Many other cooking schools have found a decline in the level of interest in their programs.

E) Many advocates of healthy dining stress the importance of including fish, grains, and organically produced vegetables in one's diet.

[spoiler]OA: If I am correct than question asks the best reason to suspect i.e we need to find an answer choice which doubts that the proposed new courses will increase interest in Metropolitan cooking academy???? Then, please tell which is the best option and why????[/spoiler]

Fish, grains etc are new trends for healthy food(adcovates believe so, not students). So Academy assumes that students mean fish, grains and Organically PP when they wanted a curriculum that focussed on today's healthy dining trends. But apperantly, this is not students' choice but advocates and schools' choice. So there is no quarantee that those students will show any interest!We do not know that are "healthy foods" for students?

i pick option E

premise 1= prospective students wanted a curriculum that focussed on today's healthy dining trends
premise 2= the current school's culinery programs declining

conclusion= the authority of the school proposes new programs of cooking exotic species of fish, alternative grains such as quinoa, and organically produced vegetables.

the logical structure= the current programs are not healthy dinning

to strengthen the statement, proposed programs supposed to be healthy dinning

correct me if i am wrong

Evidence: -Students want healthy dining trends curriculum

Conclusion: - New courses will reverse trend of declining interest.

Assumptions: -Declining interest is caused by lack of healthy dining trends curriculum. - The fish, quinoa and veggie courses will be enough.

Question Rephrase: What STRENGTHENS the Conclusion?

Prediction: Anything that (1) links the new courses to an increase in interest, (2) proves that it was the lack of the courses alone that led to the decrease, or (3) shows that these three specific courses will qualify for "healthy dining trends."

IMO: E. It links these 3 foods to "healthy dining" and is the only answer choice to match one of our assumptions.

It says "the best reason to suspect...will INCREASE". Even though it uses the word "suspect" it's actually a strengthen question.

Hi Vivian, I don't understand why did you consider the question to be a strengthen type rather than weaken.
Please explain!

aspirant2011 wrote:The Metropolitan Cooking Academy surveyed prospective students and found that students wanted a curriculum that focussed on today's healthy dining trends. In order to reverse the trend of declining interest in the school's programs, administrators propose a series of new courses focussed on cooking exotic species of fish, alternative grains such as quinoa, and organically produced vegetables.

Which of the following, if true, supplies the best reason to suspect that the proposed new courses will increase interest in the Metropolitan cooking Academy?

A) Cooking fish,grains, and vegetables relies on the same culinary fundamentals as does the preparation of other ingredients.

B) In the food and beverage industry, many employers no longer have time to train apprentices and therefore demand basic culinary skills from their new hires.

C) Local producers in the area near the Metropolitan Cooking Academy are excellent sources of exotic fish and organic vegetables.

D) Many other cooking schools have found a decline in the level of interest in their programs.

E) Many advocates of healthy dining stress the importance of including fish, grains, and organically produced vegetables in one's diet.

[spoiler]OA: If I am correct than question asks the best reason to suspect i.e we need to find an answer choice which doubts that the proposed new courses will increase interest in Metropolitan cooking academy???? Then, please tell which is the best option and why????[/spoiler]

I received a PM asking me to comment.

The school is proposing a PLAN to increase interest in the school's programs.
The correct answer must show that the plan WILL WORK.

The PLAN exhibits a language shift.
The premise is about X: students wanted a curriculum that focused on today's HEALTHY DINING TRENDS.
The conclusion is about Y: administrators propose a series of new courses focused on cooking EXOTIC SPECIES OF FISH, ALTERNATIVE GRAINS SUCH AS QUINOA, AND ORGANICALLY PRODUCED VEGETABLES.
To support the plan, the correct answer must connect X to Y: it must link today's HEALTHY DINING TRENDS to EXOTIC SPECIES OF FISH, ALTERNATIVE GRAINS SUCH AS QUINOA, AND ORGANICALLY PRODUCED VEGETABLES.

Answer choice E makes this connection: Many advocates of healthy dining stress the importance of including fish, grains, and organically produced vegetables in one's diet.

The correct answer is E.

winniethepooh wrote:Hi Vivian, I don't understand why did you consider the question to be a strengthen type rather than weaken.
Please explain!

I received a PM asking me to comment.

One definition of TO SUSPECT is to think that something is PROBABLE.

Rephrased, the question stem is asking:

Which of the following, if true, supplies the best reason to THINK THAT IT IS PROBABLE that the proposed new courses will increase interest in the Metropolitan cooking Academy?

The wording above is awkward, but the meaning is clear: we are being asked to STRENGTHEN the conclusion that the new courses will increase interest.

Yep, we lack the link between HEALTHY FOOD and 3 KIND OF FOODS.

Choice E link this gap.

Hi Vivian, I don't understand why did you consider the question to be a strengthen type rather than weaken.
Please explain!

The conclusion of the passage is that the new courses WILL reverse the trend. The question asks for "the best reason" that the courses "will increase interest" which is basically a restatement of the conclusion.

Therefore, this is a strengthen question, since we want the answer that REINFORCES the argument's conclusion.

GMATGuruNY wrote:

winniethepooh wrote:Hi Vivian, I don't understand why did you consider the question to be a strengthen type rather than weaken.
Please explain!

I received a PM asking me to comment.

One definition of TO SUSPECT is to think that something is PROBABLE.

Rephrased, the question stem is asking:

Which of the following, if true, supplies the best reason to THINK THAT IT IS PROBABLE that the proposed new courses will increase interest in the Metropolitan cooking Academy?

The wording above is awkward, but the meaning is clear: we are being asked to STRENGTHEN the conclusion that the new courses will increase interest.

Dear Mitch,

If I say the following:
I suspect that you will succeed in the mathexam. what does it imply?

Is it " I think you are going to succeed in the math exam?
or
Is it " I have a doubt that you will pass math exam?

Does not 'suspect' mean 'doubt' in other contexts? Can you give example please.

Thanks in advance